Silence
by Faikitty
Summary: In which Fai loses his voice and Kurogane learns of his own inability to read lips. Kurogane/Fai.


Here's 15. Silence for you! *heart* I was proud of myself for avoiding hurt/comfort on this. Instead it's just a comedy.

I haven't written KuroFai for awhile so I felt like doing that. This is the result. I rather like it, personally. I wrote it when I was bored at work, so it made two hours of sitting much more enjoyable. ^_^

Disclaimer: I do not own/have no affiliation with Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles or anyone involved in its production.

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><p>To Kurogane, Fai was affectionately—or, well, not so much—known as "idiot magician who can't keep his mouth shut for ten seconds," but since that itself was a bit of a mouthful, he chose to shorten it to "hey you" or "mage." Fai, however, was apparently incapable of shortening <em>anything<em> he said. His long-winded ramblings had kept Kurogane awake long past the hour normal people were asleep on many a night. Kurogane was even beginning to wonder if it was a side effect of not using magic. Maybe Fai's magic was overflowing, if such a thing was possible, so he _had_ to talk to get rid of the excess. But frankly, Kurogane didn't give a damn. All he wanted was for him to shut up and give him five minutes of peace. Was that too much to ask?

Obviously it was, because at that moment Fai burst through the door to his room, disturbing Kurogane's few precious moments of silence. The ninja sighed, lying on his bed, and close his eyes as he waited for the other man to begin verbally assaulting his ears.

Nothing happened.

Instead, Kurogane felt a tug on his sleeve, and he opened his eyes to see Fai standing over him, tears in his own blue eyes. Despite them being very fake, they still made Kurogane feel a bit bad for him. Like hell he'd show it though.

"What's up?" he asked, but Fai surprisingly said nothing. "Well?" It was almost as though… "Can't you talk?"

Fai shook his head tearfully and mouthed "no."

No way. No way! Kurogane's wish came true! Maybe he should try wishing for that pony he had always wanted when he was a little kid.

-X-

"Oh, Fai-san! That's terrible!" gasped Sakura after Kurogane informed the children of Fai's predicament. The blonde man nodded mournfully.

Syaoran looked thoughtful for a moment before standing. "I'll be right back," he announced, dashing into the other room.

"What are you going to do?" Sakura asked. Fai shrugged.

Kurogane propped his feet up on the table. "I for one don't care. He's quiet at last, so I get to rest," he said contently. Fai stuck his tongue out and mouthed something Kurogane couldn't decipher. Not that it mattered to him. He could mouth whatever he wanted, but if Kurogane couldn't hear his voice, he didn't have to listen.

Syaoran returned then with a strange green board and a short white stick. "Chalk and a chalkboard," he explained to Fai, who was looking at him curiously. "You can use these to write on."

Fai took them eagerly, scribbled something, and held up the board. "kuro-puus being mean again!" it read.

"I can't hear you; you'll have to speak up," Kurogane said.

Fai glared at him then erased the words with his sleeve. "thnx for this syaoran-kun " he wrote, smiling at the boy.

"You're welcome," replied Syaoran.

Fai turned back to Kurogane and frowned. "ill still need a translator," he wrote. "this way works here but its 2 slow if we actually need 2 talk 2 ppl."

"…Why are you looking at me?" Kurogane asked.

"be my translator."

"No."

"y not?"

"In case you hadn't noticed, I can't read lips."

Fai nodded. "i had. but u know me better than any1 else."

"No," Kurogane refused.

"but kuro-tan…"

"Kid, you can read lips, right?" asked Kurogane, looking at Syaoran.

"Yes. I had to learn how to a long time ago when my friend lost her voice," he said, smiling at the memory. He caught Fai's pleading expression and quickly added, "I doubt I still can though. It's been a long time."

Fai turned back to Kurogane with a triumphant smirk. "see?" he wrote. "kuro-myuu plz~"

"Can you, princess?" Kurogane questioned hopefully.

"No… I'm worse than you at it," Sakura admitted.

"then kuro-wanwans the only 1 left!" Fai wrote.

Kurogane sighed, defeated. Great. He did feel sorry for the mage, but still! He had been so excited to finally have a break, and now it looked like he was going to be more troubled than ever. _Stupid magician_, he thought, _hurry up and get your voice back_.

-X-

As it happened, having Kurogane as his translator wasn't the best idea. Fai was already aware of his lack of skill in lip-reading, but really, he hadn't thought the ninja would be _this_ bad at it. It was… well, difficult to deal with, to put it nicely. Kurogane seemed to be enjoying making up things Fai would never say, thus actually managing to humiliate him, and you could ask anyone; Fai was _not_ easily humiliated.

Fai was fine with playing games—in fact, he loved them—but it was beginning to annoy him.

He wasn't even able to buy alcohol. Syaoran had taken his chalkboard back, so Fai could only point and mouth what he wanted, and each time Kurogane would "mistake" it for soda or juice.

Oh well… They had found Sakura's feather and returned it to her, so they were heading back to the inn for the night. Fai would just go to bed there and hope his voice would be back by the morning. He supposed he could cast a spell to return it, but it wasn't worth it. It was common knowledge that he refused to use magic.

"What are you thinking about?" Kurogane asked. "You'll run into something if you daydream."

Fai grinned. "Fig Newton," he mouthed.

Kurogane glared at him. "No vulgarity," he ordered.

Fai laughed silently, well-aware of what it looked like he said. _Hypocrite_, he thought, letting his eyes wander up to the sky with his thoughts. Kurogane… He couldn't tell anyone what his relationship with the other man was, not because it was a secret, but simply because he didn't know himself. Fai was someone who didn't like to get close to people. In all of his fake happiness, he built up a wall of ice around himself. He wasn't so much afraid of getting hurt himself; rather, he was worried about hurting people who involved themselves with him. Still, he could only deny his feelings for so long. He really did like Kurogane. In fact, you could almost say that—

"I love you," the mage said quietly. Five seconds later, it hit him. He had actually _spoken_ the words. Thus horror at his accident and happiness for his returned voice fought for control, and while his possible reactions ranged from running away to attempting to hurriedly cover his mistake, he and Kurogane just stared at each other.

Mokona managed to dispel the awkward silence by jumping onto Fai's head. "Fai, if you had told Mokona about this earlier, Mokona would have helped you earlier! Mokona is much better at saying what you're thinking than Kuro-puu is," the meat bun said proudly.

"Wait, then that was you?" Kurogane asked.

"Why?" it wondered. "Oh! Fai says 'Mokona, you shouldn't make up what I say. It's not nice.' Heehee, but it's fun to, and Mokona loves fun!"

"…Then he didn't actually say that?"

"Fai says 'How could I, silly? I can't talk.'"

The mismatched trio had arrived at the house while they were talking, and Kurogane walked in and slammed the door shut behind him.

Mokona hopped onto Fai's hands and looked at him. "But, Fai, you really were thinking that. Mokona didn't just make it up," it told him.

Fai nodded and smiled. "I know," he mouthed," but he doesn't need to know that."

Mokona tilted its head. "Will you tell him eventually?"

Fai gazed fondly at Kurogane's silhouette in the window. "Maybe eventually."

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><p>Hope you liked it. R&amp;R would be nice, but if you don't want to, don't feel obligated to. But I hope you enjoyed it. ^_^<p> 


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